Balanced Stride

The losing of shoes from the feet of horses is as old as the profession itself. There are various reasons and facts that make the shoe remove itself from the foot of the horse. What I will attempt to accomplish here is to explain that there are four main areas that need to be covered and explained that they do control the untimely removal of shoes from the foot of the horse.

What I also want to put to rest are the feelings that arise when this does happen and who is at fault at any particular time, be it the farrier, the owner, the rider or even the horse itself might have to be the one to shoulder the responsibility of the lost shoe.

Throughout my career as a farrier I have found out a few points that need to be brought to light about lost shoes: 

Þ      Lost shoes problems account for less that 10% of the horses that I have shod.

Þ      Over 90% of the shoes that are lost are on the front feet.

Þ      Some horses lose shoes regularly and others do not.

There are specific reasons that these facts do happen, it is everyone’s responsibility to understand why those facts happen and what can we do to help prevent the lost shoe from dropping at our front door. If we cannot prevent the shoe from dropping we can at least better understand how and why the shoe did come off.

We are all in agreement that shoes do need to stay attached to the foot of the horse for a length of time that will allow us to enjoy our horse or in some cases the correction shoe that has been used is allowed to do the job that it was intended to do. There are some facts that control that length of time that the shoe will stay attached to the foot, they are:

Þ     The horse itself.

Þ     The region or the terrain of the country.

Þ     The time of the year (the season).

Þ     The type or style of the shoe that is used.

The easiest way to explain the above points is to say that there is no one shoe for all horses that will solve all problems. What needs to be understood is the fact that the farrier should never be judged as to their ability as to how long a shoe stays on a foot. There are some people that have not been properly educated as to the proper intervals for the shoeing cycles or they do not understand the process that occurs that demands that the shoes be maintained on a very regular basis. It has been my experience that some of those very people do wait until there is a lost shoe to re-shoe their horse and feel  that is the proper thing to do. But, in most cases such as the time in between shoeings has gone way beyond the regular time frame to allow for proper foot care.

It has been my experience both hands-on and educationally that the average acceptable shoeing  cycle varies from four to six weeks. There are also horses that do require shoeing cycles less than four weeks and there are horses that require up to eight weeks between their shoeing cycles. What determines the shoeing cycle for any particular horse is:

        Þ      The growth of the foot .

Þ      How the shoe is wearing.

Þ      How tight the shoe is on the foot.

If a horse is losing shoes all of the time it would be best for the farrier to go down their standard checklist to try to determine the reason for the loss of the shoe. Then if it is determined that it might be a situation that is not within their control the areas of “owner/rider” or ”horse” tables should be checked.

As the lists are checked and the possibilities are considered you can eliminate causes for shoe loss. There are points that can be easily changed like looking at and modifying turn out areas or possibly changing the amount of time between the shoeing cycles. There are other areas that need to be managed by the owner through more diligence.

Two of the biggest problems are mud and flies when it comes to shoe loss. The constant stomping of the feet to get rid of flies on the legs can cause excessive force and concussion to the clinches that will start the loosening process of the shoe. In addition, any horse that does have shoes and is turned out in a muddy area runs a high risk of shoe loss. This can become rather expensive if the horse does have pads, or other specialty accessories that require specialized work to re-create and then re-install. These two major areas can be changed with a slight adjustment in quality horse management.

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